


Always the Henchman, Never the Hero

by nautilidaes



Category: The Property of Hate
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 17:26:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17411138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nautilidaes/pseuds/nautilidaes
Summary: Click was cold. Between the trees, the sea, and the dark, once you saw one you’d seen them all. The water surrounded him, stiffening his joints, filling his mouths and choking him. There was no way to speak, no way to move without furthering his pain.So instead, he sunk into his thoughts.(takes place after the market, reflects on Click as a hero)





	Always the Henchman, Never the Hero

Click was cold. He’d seen enough of the ocean by now. Between the trees, the sea, and the dark, once you saw one you’d seen them all. The water surrounded him, stiffening his joints, filling his mouths and choking him. There was no way to speak, no way to move without furthering his pain.

So instead, he sunk into his thoughts. It was amazing how bitterness and rage could twist and warp a mind when left to its own devices. He still remembered the first time he had been killed. Details were hazy, yes, but how could he forget the slimy, disgusting creature that took him here in the first place?

_“Do you want to be a hero?”_

Of course, he did. He wanted to get away, run from whatever life he had beforehand. He wanted to forget, so badly, who he was and where he was from. How he stared into that cold, unfeeling screen, how he saw himself reflected in the eyes of something _great._ He wanted to be a hero. He wanted to be worth something.

Well, he was worth something, at least. But he was no longer _him._ The day he forgot his name was one he would remember.

-

_“You know, I never bothered to ask how long this adventure was to take. I should have written a note to my family, at the least. Say, how long are we to be here, anyway?”_

_RGB hesitated long enough to make the hero nervous. “However long it takes.”_

_The hero sped up if only to catch up with the telly’s increased pace. Was it just them, or did the world seem to lose saturation? “What do you mean, ‘however long it takes?’ I have a job to get back to, you know. My partner will be worried sick. I need to know how long I’ll be so I know when I’ll be back.”_

_“I mean exactly what I said I mean. However long it takes.” RGB turned on his heels to stare his newest hero in the face. They were eye-to-eye, the first hero he’d manage to get so tall. “You don’t have to know how long, because you won’t be back.” The hero’s eyes widened. God, he hated this part._

_“What- that’s not fair. That’s… you never said anything about not going back-”_  
_“Would it have changed your mind?”_  
_“Quite a bit, I think-”_  
_“Then it doesn’t matter anymore. You are the hero now. Nothing more, nothing less.”_  
_“What a load of bullshit. I’m not just the hero, I’m-”_  
_“You’re what?”_  
_“I’m- I-”_  
_“Go on, I’ll wait.”_  
_“I… I don’t know. I don’t know who I am.” tears threatened to blur the hero’s vision as they searched, desperately, frantically, desparingly, for any clue as to who they were beforehand._

_Who had they loved? The face was already drifting away. What did they work for? Aspirations died as they touched them. Who were they before? Not a clue._

_“Ah, well that’s all fine and dandy, but we really must continue before-”_

_The hero turned to RGB with an angry, murderous glare._

_“No.”_  
_“No?”_  
_“You heard me. You lying, manipulative bastard- you think I’m going to walk another step with you?” They approached, hands balled into fists, “I despise you. You- you killed me, you know that? Who am I now? Someone to mold to your will? What kind of monster are you?”_

_Before RGB could reply, they made their first blow._  
_“The kind that won’t get to do this again.”_  
_They went for a second one, but it never made its mark._

_All that Click could remember after that was the heavy **snap!** of something being tapped and the sharp **click!** of his neck breaking. Afterward was just black._

-

The darkness was shifting. No longer constant, it hit in patches, turbulent and chaotic like the emotions of the being submerged in it. Click felt himself rise to the surface, sink back down to its floor, cycling back and forth, almost as if the ocean was trying to decide what to do with him. 

Did he have a purpose to the sea? If so, for how long? How long could he expect to be lulled around, tossed back and forth, until spit back out or swallowed completely, never given a second thought?

He felt pity blossom in his chest. The new hero… the child… he should have pushed her into the threshold as soon as he could. He should have spared her from his fate, mercifully ending this adventure once and for all. She was the youngest he’d seen yet, and his pity twisted further into hatred. How dare that monster take another one so young? How could he have killed another innocent, one who never had a chance to make themselves? When- _if,_ he reminded himself harshly- he escaped, he would be sure that RGB felt all the pain he had inflicted onto others increased tenfold. 

The sea had made its decision. He gurgled one last time, eyes opening just wide enough to see his body dissolve around him, and submitted to the will of the waves.


End file.
